Volunteering for ICYE in Honduras

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Monthly Archives: April 2013

As people who read my blog reglarly will know, I sometimes go off in a rant about things in Honduras because a lot of stuff that I see here and what I know about this country seem to make no sense and it can be quite frustrating. I’m afraid this post will be another rant, except not about Honduras today… about people from the Western world – yes that means you the US, UK, Europe. Obviously not everyone is basically stupid but some people are… particularly people who read the Daily Mail and choose to comment on things that they know nothing about.

A friend from Loughborough sent me this article today – http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2316843/Horrific-collection-photos-grim-reality-life-San-Pedro-Sula-Honduras.html to show me how the UK is protraying the country I am living in. Don’t read it if you have a weak stomach; apparently the Daily Mail sees fit to copy the Honduran newspapers and show photos of dead bodies, people in pain and family members in mourning. Nice. I know the situation in SPS (San Pedro Sula) is bad – I happen to live 6 hours from there unlike the Daily Mail writers – but I’ve quickly learnt in Honduras that you can’t always rely on statistics. The article displays A LOT of pictures of injured people and dead bodies alongside statistics like ‘83.4per cent of homicides are by firearms’, ‘San Pedro Sula recorded 1,218 homicides in 2012 (a rate of 3.3 murders a day)’ and ‘149 civilians killed by police in the last two years’. I’m not saying that I would walk around SPS, or Tegus, without being cautious and I definitely wouldn’t walk around at night but you have to take these numbers in context, which the Daily Mail fails to do. I had a quick search on google ‘how many people are killed by knives each year in the uk´ and straight away had results like 130,000 knife attacks a year (Daily Mail of course), a knife attack every 4 minutes, 6 killed a week and 3500 murders a year from knives. If you read this and didn’t know which country it refered to, I’m pretty sure you would say you wouldn’t want to go there and you’d be imagining somewhere very far from the UK. But I for one feel pretty safe when I’m in the UK, including London which is where the majority of knife attacks happen. And I’ve never had one of my friends who live in London say they are worried about crime – which is one of the questions I’m asked often when talking about my life in Tegus. The Daily Mail has a tendency to dramatise things and pick out all of the worst statistics (and pictures) and present the horror that people face as though it is entertainment.

But it is not the Daily Mail that I am really angry at, it’s the people who choose to comment on these kind of articles. Not everyone, some people just mention their sympathy for those who are victims or say it makes them realise how lucky they are to have been born in a western country (which they are!!!). A couple of people even commented that it was hard to read but we need to know more about what is going on in the world that isn’t usually published (I love you!). But others feel the need to display their selfishness, stupidity and ignorance for all to see, here are a few of my favourites and why they’re so stupid:

“America – heed this warning… your 60% death rate by guns may soon match this !!” – of course, it’s not an issue that Honduras faces this every day, but we should be worried about its nearby RICH neighbour. Of course.

“Looks like just another day in Tower Hamlets.” – that’s just dumb.

“Its their problem, nothing we can do about it.” – I’m sure if you had had the bad luck to be born in a country like Honduras you would hope others would say this about you… I think not.

“IT’s all over South America and they are slowly bringing it over to Europe, as our lax emigration laws allow them to” – When was the last time you met a South American in Europe? I know I haven’t met many. Recently, I’ve been trying to help a friend from Honduras look at volunteering in the UK for one year – he’s educated and not a law breaker, don’t worry everyone! – but it is literally impossible. He is visiting the US soon for 2 weeks and even has to get a VISA for that, which he might not get, simply for the fact that he has the bad luck of having a Honduran passport.

“and I thought Birmingham was bad.” – you have no idea how lucky you are.

“and yet they keep breeding” – I wish I could sit with you for 10 minutes to tell you how disgusting your comment is. If you bothered to learn anything about what you’re commenting on you would know that the Catholic church in Honduras prevents sexual education in school, has made abortion illegal (even in cases of rape) and pretty much says that the use of condoms and other contraceptives is illegal.

Ok, so I sound angry right? It’s because I am! I just hate how ignorant we are in Western nations to the problems that developing countries are facing – I don’t think we realise how little people from developing nations have. As I talked about in my last blog, if your country was in the middle of a war and your family encouraged you to go to a rich country where you would have a chance at surviving and possibly even getting a well paid job, are you really saying there is no way you would go? And when you got to this foreign country, with no money, food or place to sleep, and you had one friend and they told you they were part of a gang and the gang would look after you and give you everything you needed, are you 100% sure you would say no? Of course I’m not saying every gang member got drawn into crime like this, but many did and that is why Honduras has the problem it does. The majority of its people are innocent and just want to get by in life – they don’t have the luxuries of cars, holidays or even nice houses with nice furniture. Many of the houses in Tegus are basically sheds. The people I have met in Honduras are some of the friendliest people I have met and by presenting it in the way it does, the Daily Mail is alienating these people from those who can possibly help them. It’s not all just about money, just raising awareness (and being aware yourself) can help and stop the ignorance about the developing world. So please, when you see articles like this don’t believe everything you read and – as we were taught in my masters – ask questions so you can understand more.

I am going to attempt to discuss why the gang culture that exists in Honduras is so prevalent – however this is a hugely complex topic which is quite controversial and open to a lot of debate, but I will try my best. One of the reasons I started my blog was to raise awareness of the problems in Honduras, and the region of Central America, and the reasons behind these problems are important and not often understood. I’m sorry if you find it really boring but I find it super interesting and hope you will read 🙂

Why are drugs and gangs so prevalent in Honduras today?

Most countries have some sort of gang culture, and like most, Honduras’ gangs were existent but didn’t cause too many problems 30 years ago – however the situation changed dramatically in the 1980s. Civil conflicts hit the region at this time and Honduras became very unstable. In fear of their lives many Hondurans, and people from other Central American countries, fled to the United States – many went to LA due to its proximity and the promise of work. However, the gang culture was already strong in LA at this point and due to insecurity many Central Americans either joined gangs or created their own. It was at this time that the two largest Central American gangs were created – the 18th street (M-18) and Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) gangs. M-18 was created by Mexicans in LA and MS-13 was created by an El Salvadoran youth in LA1; therefore neither of these gangs originated from Honduras, or Honduran people. However today, it is arguable that it is Honduras that suffers the most from their creation. The gangs found it easy to recruit in LA as illegal immigrants arrived and had no where to sleep, no money and no friends and so they were desperate. The gangs were even known to recruit from as young as 9 years old and train these young people to kill.

Despite LA’s already prevalent gang culture, the US decided that these new gangs were making the situation worse in the UK and therefore they felt able to justify the deportation of tens of thousands of Latin Americans. It seems that, unable to kick US citizen gang members out of the country, it was easier to deport those who they were legally able to. These deportations occurred in the 2000s. Between 2001 and 2010, it is estimated that almost 130,000 convicted criminals were deported to Central America; Honduras received 44,042 criminals2. The population of Honduras today is around 7,700,000 people, the population of the UK is 62,000,000 people. Therefore, relatively, it would be like having 400,000 criminal gang members thrown into the UK (yes, I did the maths!). So this was a big problem for Honduras to deal with. Due to many of the people that were being deported being youths, and therefore in many cases had spent their whole lives in the US, they often did not know how to speak Spanish or have any connections in the new country. Therefore the gangs again fed on this desperation and were able to quickly develop and became more organised. I have also read that the Central American countries that received deportees had no information about why the criminals had been deported and what the crimes they had committed were3 and so they could not detain them and they were free to carry on with their crimes. The emergence of these new, and deadly, gangs can’t be fully blamed on the US and it’s strict deportation approach – however I believe it has been a huge influence. When the gangs were in the US they had strict prison systems, a functioning government and a reliable police force to limit the activities of the gangs. But when they were sent to Central America, the gangs no longer had these limitations and began to expand their crimes in hope of more money and more power with little resistance from the government.

One of the easiest, and most lucrative, ways for Central American gangs to earn money was drug trafficking. As the Mexican government became stricter in its control over Mexican gangs, the official routes used moved to Central America – and central to the region sits Honduras. It has also been easy for gangs to use the country as a passage from South America to the US due to its shockingly corrupt government that allows the crime to continue in exchange for huge amount of money. Honduras is said to receive a shocking 79% of of the drug flights that leave their South American neighbours4.. The drug trafficking situation in Honduras, and the gangs that control it, has become almost untouchable. The government is corrupt and therefore is easily paid off. Those who do speak out against the violence are often silenced – a shocking number of journalists have been murdered in the last 5 years. At least 20 have died since the 2009 coup5. There is even a Wikipedia page listing the number of victims. In 2009 the anti-drug trafficking force, Julian Aristides Gonzalez, was shot 11 times as he dropped his daughter at school6. These murders are barely investigated and very rarely solved and so drug gangs face impunity, paving the way for them to continue silencing anyone who may affect their operations in Honduras. Over the past decade the number of murders in Honduras has grown rapidly, now reaching around 86 per 100,000 and shows no sign of slowing down. In one article I read while researching this topic I came across an article by an American journalist living in America. He talks about one night where he joined a police patrol in San Pedro Sula (the largest and most dangerous city in Honduras), in one night he saw ‘the bodies of two bus drivers who had been killed for refusing to pay a cut to gangs, a police officer executed on a highway with a single shot to the head, and three people shot dead in a pool hall for what was described as “a settling of accounts”’7. This was just one city, one police patrol… in one night. The more control these gangs have upon Honduras, the more the violence is spreading to those who have not chosen a life of crime, but have fought against it or simply just got in the way. I’m not sure what the future holds for Honduras but unless the government can make big changes, the future does not look hopeful for the people here.

So this is a post about the general day to day life that I experience in Tegucigalpa, it is usually too dangerous to take pictures of things so I’ve got most of these pictures from the internet. I looked for a while for a picture of the streets of the centre, where I work, but I couldn’t find any… most likely because it’s too dangerous to flash a camera about there! A funny little story too… I was waiting in the women’s toilets at Wendy’s the other day and out of one of the cubicles comes a little girl no more than 5 and see’s me and straight away says ‘hola gringa’. Not in a mean way or anything, this is just what Latin Americans call anyone who is white. Technically it is only for people from the US but I guess it’s hard to tell the difference here. Laura is convinced it is an offensive term but I take it as like us calling Honduran’s ‘latinos’. Maybe it just depends on the way it’s used… Anyway, here are a few differences between good old England and my new home, Honduras:

1. The capital city: London vs. Tegucigalpa

2. The roads: nice, shiny motorways vs. huge cracks and potholes

3. Car accidents: Obviously car accidents aren’t much different but I drove past a 4 car crash yesterday two times, with about 2 hours in between, and there were no police or ambulances to be seen. In England we usually have someone there within minutes…

12. Home security: CCTV (or usually just locked doors) vs. barbed wire and broken glass on the walls around all houses

13. Local corner shop: A small shop with everything you could want vs. a ‘pulperia’ with bars to talk through and not much stuff

14. Food: The good, old classics (my mum was mean and told me she was having Shepards pie the other day and now I can’t stop thinking about it…) vs. plato tipico consisting of frijoles, mantequilla, eggs, platano, tortillas and maybe some meat

15. Fish and chips: Greasy vs. eyes staring at you

17. Money: One poin coin = 28 Lempira… in notes! (And yes, that is my own amazingly tanned hand in the picture!)

Of course some of these takes on things are quite generalised – like the tourism police that we met in the first weeks were very friendly (and not pervy) and there are lots more delicious examples of British food. But I hope you’ve enjoyed this little comparison of my old home and my current home!

Our latest weekend adventure took us all the way (about 9 hours travelling) to Copan; the location of the only Mayan ruins in Honduras. We had been planning to leave on Thursday but Brynja’s sister from Iceland (spelt with funny Icelandic letters so we’ll call her Thodey from now on!) was coming to Honduras and was held up in Boston. We managed to set off on Friday though and had a pretty uneventful journey to Copan via San Pedro Sula. San Pedro is meant to be the most dangerous city in the world at the moment but as we were using the Hedman Alas bus (safe, but expensive) we didn’t have to venture into the city proper.

When we arrived in Copan we had a group of men trying to get us to choose them to transport us to our hotel, however one man won. He came up to us and asked ‘do you wanna have a ride in my tuk tuk?’ (the little mototaxis) – we’d never heard this word for the taxi before so we were intrigued. Plus he had the cheapest price. We kept forgetting his name over the course of the weekend (it’s either Ronaldo or Rodolfo) so from now he will be called Copan Man. In typical Honduran style, Copan Man was determined to squeeze as many people into his tiny taxi as possible so we were joined by ‘random traveller’. We stopped on the way to our hotels so that Brynja and Thodey could buy yet more mosquito repellent (it doesn’t seem to help anyway) at which point Copan Man told the random traveller to wait on the street so he could chat with me and Laura. He started telling us about a horse riding trip he could do with us the next day, he reassured us that he had ‘5 very safe horses’ and that if we wanted to stop for a swim in the river ‘the horses will wait for you, it’s no problem’, as if they would be likely to just wander off otherwise. Anyway, we then dropped off random traveller at his hostel to which Copan Man then exclaimed ‘let’s go for a tour!’. So we zoomed up and down the cobbled streets (it felt like a rollarcoaster at some points) and he told us where the bars and one club was. We eventually arrived at our hotel and were all ready for bed to be honest, but we were all really hungry so we freshened up and headed straight out again. We had already decided we were craving some non-Honduran food (we’re useless travellers aren’t we?!) and set out to find Jim’s Pizzeria (Lonely Planet recommended). We found a pizza place, we think it was Jim’s, and had some yummy food. We then wandered back to the hotel and bought some pretty jewelery from the street stalls and also got our breakfast for the next day (this turned into a routine of Frosties, milk and orange juice when we could find it). We then discovered the cute little pool on the roof of our hotel (about the size of a double bed), it was amazing! You could see views over Copan and it was great to chill out.

Thodey, Brynja and me in the little pool!

The next day we decided to go for the horseriding trip – despite Laura having never been on a horse before and me being quite afraid after being thrown off when I was little. We kept strong though and one by one got on our horses in a little paddock outside Copan Ruinas (the name of the village) – my horse was called Princesa and I discovered pretty quickly she didn’t want to behave for me. We were immediately led out onto the main road and needless to say none of us had much control over the horses (apart from Thodey who was a bit of a pro!!) and Princesa had to be moved a different way by a cowboy guy a couple of times. We quickly realised that all of the horses had a desire to be the leader of the pack and on narrow paths this caused some problems. Princesa in particular was very impatient and we had some words. Although I’m guessing she was a Spanish speaking horse so she probably didn’t understand me. The poor horses though had to take us all up a very steep, rocky hill in the heat to a little village in the mountains. Hopefully they enjoyed the views as much as we did. We were harrassed quite a bit by some girls in the village to buy necklaces and dolls. We felt mean saying no but we had already bought one doll the night before (and they’re not the most attractive things) and we’d already bought other jewelry etc. The children, in the village and other places, though are very persistent and even become quite aggressive when you say no to them… which discourages you more from buying from them. From the village walked along a small trail to some ruins that had something to do with fertility and giving birth. Copan Man suggested we try sitting in the birthing seat – I think he just wanted to laugh at us. We then got back on our faithful horses (yes, they did wait) and made our way back down the hill – which was actually a lot more uncomfortable than going up. Princesa also decided to trot and gallop a few times which made me wish I had brought a sports bra. We then rode along the river which was nice but again didn’t seem very easy for the horses. In the end we had a good time on the horses but we were all quite relieved to be on our feet again 3 hours later.

In the afternoon the rest of the girls wanted to do a canopy tour and I was eventually persuaded to join them after about 30 minutes of stressing about money. It was expensive but I’m so glad I did it! The guys who do the tours were great and took lots of photos for us and the mountains we did it in were amazing. The views were fantastic and we did about 15 or 20 zip lines – some were really long and you could zoom along it really fast while they pulled the rope up and down. All the guys were doing crazy tricks to show off and even persuaded Laura to give it a go upside down – the rest of us were too scared. It was definitely worth the money for the adrenaline rush, I’ve missed it!! Although, having sat on horses for 3 hours and then in harnesses for an hour our backs, bums and tums were hurting for the rest of the weekend.

That night we had dinner in a lovely rooftop restaurant and afterwards we went on our usual hunt for Frosties. It also turns out that I dream in Spanish – at some point in the night Laura heard me sleep talking in Spanish, saying ‘no se’ and ‘porque’! I just have figure out what I’m dreaming about…

We got up bright and early the next day to go to the Copan Ruins (Lonely Planet advised to avoid the crowds by getting there at 8am but I think you only need to do this in peak season as it was empty the whole time we were there). It was cool to have the place almost to ourselves though, especially as our guide told us in high season you can’t even take photos because there are so many people. Our guide, Marvin, was lovely and kept cracking awful jokes and then reassuring us ‘Im just joking’ even when it was quite obvious he was – we didn’t believe that the Mayans were buried with their iPads. He was also the slowest picture taker ever but we loved him. As well as our guide, the ruins themselves were pretty impressive. Here are the things I learnt that I can actually still remember…

1. the Mayans built cities upon cities, so beneath the ruins you can see today there are about 4 or 5 more cities beneath. They are currently discovering the structures underneath the ones above groud so in about 10 years you can go underground and see them…!

2. The structures, which were pretty big, didn’t have an inside or much purpose apart from for show. They look like they have huge areas inside of them, like pyramids, but they are completely solid.

3. The Mayans had a sport – I cant remember what it is called – where basically two teams have to use a ball and hit it against targets. The difficult part is that they can’t use their hands, feets or heads. Only their hips. Apparently you can still see it in Mexico… think I might have to! Also, in Mayan times they would choose captains of the teams before the match and the captain of the winning team would be sacrificed after the match. This was because the person sacrificed would become a God, or so they believed, so the captains would willingly put themselves forward.

The site was also home to several Macaws (parrots basically) who were squawking everywhere and even flew above our heads a few times which was pretty cool.

My favourite structure:

That afternoon we decided to give our purses, and tired bodies, a well earned rest and just chilled by the pool. The views from the hotel were amazing and the price was really good considering we had a rooftop pool overlooking Copan so I would recommend it – Hotel Belssy. Before it got dark we had a wander around the cobbled streets of Copan Ruinas and took in the amazing scenery around it. It would have been very easy to stay a few more days somewhere like that. The really good thing about Copan is that you can actually walk around after it gets dark! In Tegus, and even safer places like Tela and the lake, as soon as it gets dark it is best to be safely tucked away in your house. There has only been one time in Tegus when I have been out after 6 (when it gets dark) and even though me and Laura had each other it was pretty scary. Copan, though, has a little square full of people, lots of tourists and lots of street lighting so it has a different vibe and it feels so much safer. We found a lovely place to eat and settled down for our last meal in Copan. After we had finished a police car pulled up and 3 or 4 policemen came into where we were for their evening meal… only in Honduras! We decided to make the most of this opportunity and all quickly hopped in the van for a piccy! We’re rebels!!! 😀

Sadly, we had to return to Tegus the next day – we said goodbye to our tuk tuk man and the amazing Copan:

Despite having to leave lovely, clean, safe Copan… I did get a strong sense of coming home as we drove into dark and dangerous Tegus. I am happy to call it home though – but I will definitely visit Copan again before I leave Honduras. It is wonderful… if you are planning on travelling here I would definitely recommend it, but be warned… it is very different to the rest of the country so don’t be fooled!

In less than three weeks Brynja will be leaving us to go back to Iceland. Her leaving soon is the reason we have crammed two trips into weekends which has been tiring but it definitely helped to have that motivation to get going! We have only known Brynja for 2 months but myself and Laura have gotten really close to her and we’re now really used to seeing her (and her being late) every weeekend. We’re going to miss her. However, with the chance to visit Iceland and have a personal guide it’s not all bad 😉 Love you B Dogg!!!! x

There are so many things to love and hate here, like all countries I guess. But having been thrown from a country like the UK (after 22 years of leaving it for no more than 6 weeks at a time) to somewhere like Honduras, and more specifically Tegucigalpa, it is easy to take note of the great things and awful things. Here are a few of them…

The good stuff:

1. The people. Yes some of them are crazy and creeps. But the majority of people are absolutely lovely and really appreciate it when you attempt to speak Spanish with them, no matter how bad your effort is. I have given examples before of strangers being kind to me and that is something I have seen quite often here.

2. The weather. Laura won’t agree with me on this one – yes sometimes it is unbearably humid and hot, but I always see it as at least it isn’t freezing winter of the UK. Apparently April is the worst month so hopefully it will actually get a little more bearable soon.

3. The randomness – as mentioned before, often not nice but still it can be eye opening at times.

4. The adventure of it. This may fade as I get out of Tegus more, but our weekend to Lago de Yajoa when we had no idea where we going or staying was a bit scary but exciting to be travelling so randomly and just seeing where the road took us.

5. The food. Delicioso!!! The food is samey here (basically always tortillas, frijjoles, queso, cream and maybe some meat) but as my closest friends and family will know, this suits me fine. I’m pretty fussy so when I find something I like, I’m quite happy to stick to it.

6. Learning… like I’ve said before I learn more here in 2 weeks than I did during my Masters (and it cost less to come here too).

7. How cheap everything is! Bus to work… about 5p. Bottle of soda at lunch… about 8p. Weekend away with friends (accommodation and food included)… less than £35. Nice.

8. The places to visit… I have the Caribbean about 6 hours away (although it’s actually quite awkward to get there)… I’ll be going to the Bay Islands next month. If you don’t know what they are… google it! And be prepared to be jealous 🙂

9. Meeting such a random variety of people. I have met a far bigger mix of people here than I ever have in the UK – I guess you don’t get that many different walks of life wandering around Middlestown. A lot of this variety comes from the link to ICYE but still it is great to meet such varied people who have so much to say. I have also met a lot more gay people here than in the UK, which is also something the other volunteers have noticed (one of whom is gay)… I would like to know why this is though! In a country where homosexual people are often victimised you would think it would be different?! The different social classes here are also stark and so I live and work with people of opposite ways of life so that is also really interesting.

10. Just how different it is here… I was extremely bored of the UK when I left so now it is just amazing to be surrounding by a place so different, but in some ways so similar. But is it fascinating to notice which things are the same and which are different.

The bad stuff:

1. The poverty… it is something that I don’t think I will ever get used to. Every time I see someone begging, with dirty clothes on or sleeping on the street at night it is like a fresh reminder that a lot of people here have nothing. This morning when I was sat at a traffic light on the bus I saw a man sat in a huge pile of rubbish picking away at different bits of food and slowly building up a meal for himself. It made me feel a bit sick but this is what he has to do to survive.

2. The crime. It iss starting to get a little more real for me how dangerous it is here, I’ve said before that it is easy to ignore but it has become more and more noticeable how many deaths actually happen every day. I can’t remember ever seeing the front pages of the newspapers and not seeing dead bodies from the day before (and each newspaper has different murders). I’m beginning to see how Honduras does have the notorious murder rate that the UN proclaims.

3. As I’ve mentioned before, the men here… they drive me crazy! I was walking with a girl from work today and she said ‘slow down, slow down’, I didn’t realise how fast I walk! I explained to her that it’s because I get all the things said from men and after about 5 minutes she saw what I meant and said I was allowed to speed up again…

4. The pollution. It is unbelievable, you can taste it and smell it as you come back into Tegus from somewhere else. The rapidito bus I came on today let out huge amounts of black fumes as we went up the hill to my neighbourhood. No doubt he won’t bother to get a service.

5. Just the dirt, rubbish and smells. You can’t imagine how bad it is until you’ve been here.

6. People having no patience with others – I miss how polite we are in England that if someone is coming through a door the opposite way we will always wait to let the other person past (usually meaning we both awkwardly stand there not wanting to go first!). Here people just barge through as though there is no one else coming through.

However, despite all the bad things (I couldn’t think of 4 more things!), there is something unique about Honduras that makes me enjoy my life here. People describe Tegus as ‘raw’; it is the capital city of Honduras but it is, to be frank, a mess. However, it doesn’t pretend to be anything more and it bears all; the good, the bad and the downright ugly. You get what you see. I think it is this brutal honesty that draws me to it and makes me want to stay. If that makes sense… it’s home 🙂

*Warning this post is loooong… I wanted to give a nice, long and detailed account of my weekend so when I forget everything in about 2 days I can read it and remember! I also want to start including more pictures as my parents don’t have Facebook and can’t see the pictures I put on there… Enjoy!

This weekend we (Me, Laura, Brynja, Maya and Loui) took our first long weekend trip away! We went to Lago de Yajoa, which is the largest manmade lake in Honduras.

To make the most of the trip we decided to take the Friday off from our projects – for me, Laura and Brynja it was the first time we were taking a day off since we started volunteering (apart from the various illnesses we have had!) so we were feeling a little bit guilty. However, at the same time it is amazing how quickly the time is going here and how little we will see if we carry on how we are just staying in Tegus every weekend. Everywhere takes so long to get to in Honduras so to reach most places and make the trip worth it you need more than two days but hopefully we won’t need to take too much time off.

So, Thursday night (the night before we left) we still had no plan and no buses or hotels booked. Oops. When I told my host family this they immediately sprang into action phoning various bus companies and friends trying to find the best bus for us to get, it was so sweet! In the end, the next day a close family friend (who is more like a second host brother) drove us all to Comayaguela (the dangerous sister city of Tegus where all the bus stations happen to be) and helped us to buy tickets to get to the lake. The bus was just 105L – this is about £4 for a 3 hour bus journey, as anyone who get buses in the UK will know, this will get you about 10 minutes at home. Anyway, in this time Loui also realised she had lost her credit card so Darlyng (the family friend) drove her all the way back to Metro Mall to check if it was there and I realised I had forgotten my passport copy but he sorted it for me! We were very under prepared…

So eventually we arrived at a town called ‘La Guama’ with no plan of what to do next. We knew we needed to get to a town called Pena Blanca as this is where all the hotels and hostels are. So after giving some of my spanish a go with the locals, I found out that two women were waiting for a bus to the same place so we just needed to wait for them to get on the bus there. While waiting for the bus, I phoned one of the hostels recommended by Lonely Planet and checked they had space for us and they did… sorted! So once we got to Pena Blanca we just had to find a way to the hostel. We asked one of the mototaxis how much it would be to the hostel and he said 70L (about £2) and we assumed he must mean we needed two taxis as they can take 3 people squished together, as you can see from the picture.

But no, our lovely taxi meant all five of us and our bags in this little vehicle. And we managed it somehow… with Loui on my knees, Maya sitting with the taxi driver and all our bags squished in around us. A pretty good deal really… although the journey seemed a lot quicker when we took a normal taxi back two days later…

The hostel we stayed in is called D&D Brewery (http://www.ddbrewery.com/) as the owner is from America and makes his own Ales. It was a really nice place and I would recommend it! We didn’t end up getting there until 4ish in the end which was a little later than planned and meant we couldn’t do much which was a shame. It gets dark early (at 6ish) and very quickly in Honduras so with the crime rates it is best not to be out and about after dark. But we had a nice relax around the pool and then a walk along the nearby canal which was quite eventful anyway. Laura managed to have a creature poo on her and step in a large mound of poo within ten minutes of each other – sorry Laura but it was pretty funny! Despite the area being more touristy than other places, when we ran into a couple of military they were clearly amazed at 5 white girls in shorts and literally stared at us the entire time as we walked on… which was a little worrying. But we got back safe and sound anyway. It was very strange seeing lots of white people at the hostel (even 4 people from England woohoo!) and being able to speak English with almost everyone, I can’t imagine how it’s going to feel when I fly into Heathrow in 9 months and be surrounded by white people again!! I wonder if I will miss the men staring… hmm…

Anyway, that evening we had some yummy food, some homemade ale and an embarrassingly early bedtime (it had been a long day!). But we did manage to strike a deal with the owner of the hostel and his American friends (who of course me and Laura debated with over their ruining of our lovely accent) that if we managed to buy marshmallows for the next night they would give us some free beers.

The next day (after a delicious breakfast – the hostel is popular for it’s Blueberry pancakes) we split up into two groups – me, Laura and Brynja went to the famous Pulpahanzak Falls and Maya and Loui went to a nearby nature reserve (where they managed to break a tree). To get to the falls we took an El Mochito bus from just outside the hostel – everything was going normal until we heard a loud squawk behind us and realised there was a boy sat, holding a very large and very alive chicken! As always we justified this kind of thing by saying ‘Only in Honduras’. When we got to our stop (to anyone planning to travel in Honduras just tell the guy shouting directions where you are going and he will tell you where to get off) we had a flat, 20 minute walk to the falls – sounds easy right? No, it was a nightmare… it was so hot and humid we were so excited to get to the falls at last and jump in the nice, cold water!

The falls were amazing – you definitely should not miss out on them if you’re in Honduras, especially if you’re an adrenaline junkie. There are canopy tours across the falls, river tubing and a tour behind the waterfall. We picked the last option as everywhere we went people said we should do it. Someone at the hostel the night before had said that you walk behind the waterfall, not under it – this was a lie. It was the most intense, scary and amazing experience ever all rolled into one. Even more exhilarating than the bungy jump in NZ – at least that only lasted a few seconds (once I’d built up the nerve to actually jump!). Straight away, once we’d stripped down to our bikinis in front of a group of tourists, we had to jump about 10 feet into a pool, before climbing over rocks to the back of the waterfall. Then our guide led us to different ways around the falls where we literally could not see where we were going or even breathe because of the force of the water falling down on our heads. We had to hold hands in order to get around safely and not get lost – at one point me and Brynja lost each others hands and were just screaming each others names until we found each other again! It is funny to talk about it now but at the time I was petrified! At some points our guide took us just in front of the falls so we could look up at it – but the spray was so heavy we still couldn’t open our eyes! My favourite bit was just before the end when the guide led us to a hidden pool with it’s own little waterfall and we could just swim around and relax a little after what our minds and bodies had just endured. It was like something you see in movies, proper paradise! I quickly realised though that my thighs and arms were hurting a lot from all of the activity after such little exercise for the last 3 months! Not good for our rowing plans the next morning… Here are some pics of the falls adventure!

‘We’re about to go in there??’

That is the waterfall behind us – I managed to take the camera and it didn’t die, yay! Thank goodness for sandwich bags…Me swimming in the little pool with it’s own waterfall…

On the way home we managed to find marshmallows, yay! So that night we sat around the bonfire and toasted our marshmallows while chatting to our new friends… 3 from England and a guy from Holland. More paradise! However we did have some trouble getting our promised free beers… although I did get one but the others don’t know, sshhh 🙂

The next day Maya and Loui went kayaking while the three of us again went out in a rowing boat… I’m sure you can guess who managed to get down to the lake from the canal fastest! It took us half an hour just to half way down the canal and we were constantly veering off to one side or the other (I wasn’t much help either as my arms were still in pain from yesterday so I had to scream in paid everytime I moved!). To our rescue though came a young guy who offered to take us the rest of the way… he rowed about 5 times as fast as us and didn’t break a sweat. So we made it to the lake but as it was very foggy there wasn’t much to see and we had a bus home to catch so we had to turn around pretty much straight away. The journey back down the canal was much easier but still really difficult and stressful. We saw a lot of herons (I think that is what they were anyway) which I’m sure my dad would have liked.

So foggy!!!!

One thing that was definitely noticeable about the area we were staying was how friendly everyone was… everyone walking past would say ‘hola!’, which at first we were quite wary of as we’re now so used to all of the men in Tegus being abusive. But it turned out to be a redeeming feature of the town we were in. After eventually getting back on dry land we had lunch and checked out of the hostel (for the accommodation, 2 dinners, 2 breakfasts, one lunch and several beers my bill was just 800L… just over £30! One reason to love Honduras!). We then got a taxi back to La Guama to wait for the bus – buses run on very random schedules, especially Sundays, so we were a bit nervous when no buses went past for half an hour. But eventually one turned up and we were on our way home! My lovely family met us from the bus (it was Comayaguela again and dark by this point so not a good combination) and drove everyone home.. seriously, they are so lovely! I was really looking forward to curling up into bed and sorting out my emails (this is one of the bad things about being abroad and not having access to the internet, your pile of emails rises quickly!), but my family had other plans! We all went to the cinema and me and my host siblings saw the weirdest Zombie film ever (Warm Bodies) which was acutally quite sweet in the end but still very weird. There was also lots and lots of posters for Despicable Me 2, I can’t wait to see it! Although it is sad I won’t be able to see it with George, my Despicable Me buddy!!

When we got home my host sister pointed out a new addition to my room – apparently my host dad was out shopping and saw these two dolls and thought of me and Azariah (‘his two daughters’ he said – at least until the daughter doing ICYE in Germany comes back!) as one had dark hair and one had blonde (my hair has lightened so much, people keep asking me if I have coloured it, woo!). So here is a couple of pics from my new home…

I also took my camera into my project today as one of the other volunteers, Sarah, was leaving today and as she was learning English we managed to communicate quite well. It was so sad to see her go, so here are some pics of mis amigos de mi proyecto:

Kelyn and Sarah, volunteers at ICYE too!

Kelvin and Hector, mi tio!!!! I love him 🙂

One of the offices in my project

I should also mention that today at least 2 bombs exploded at the final of the Boston Marathon, there isn’t much information about why it happened yet. I look at the news a lot more than anyone else at my project so I was the first to see what had happened. And I knew before I told anyone what their reaction would be. When I said 2 people had died, they responded by saying ‘5 people die here every day’. And although this may seem like a disregard for the pain of others, having lived here for 3 months I can see why they have this attitude. They see death and horror every day so they have no choice but to numb themselves to it. I was walking with two women from my project last week when we saw a front cover of one of the newspapers – it was one of the most horrifying things I have ever seen. I literally couldn’t speak for 10 minutes after I felt so ill and sorry for the person who had died (in a really awful way which the photographer obviously wanted a good picture of). But the women from the project said ‘oh’ and carried on their conversation. They’re not being cold, they just have to not think about it.

However I am in no way saying that what happened in Boston today was not awful. It is sad that a lot of people have been injured, and at least two dead… but at least those who have been injured will get good medical care and help to pay for it. And although it is of course awful that two lives have been lost (for what seems like no reason) at least those people will get the funerals that they deserve. Many in Honduras don’t get this. I am not saying that all of this is my view, but it is how the situation is here in Honduras and I just wanted to express that, I hope I haven’t offended or upset anyone. When I read the news I was so angry… those people were running the marathon to help others and now have been hurt because of that. George Smart ran a half marathon for me to help my fundraising to come here and I can’t imagine if he would have been hurt because of that amazing gesture, the world is cruel. I hope those who were hurt today and those who have lost someone are looked after.

Yes, it’s me again… I just have too much to say about this crazy city!! And I don’t think I’ve really told you enough about it yet to communicate how crazy it is…!

One of the things I most love about Tegucigalpa, and will miss the most when I go back to England, is the randomness. I don’t think I ever take a bus or taxi journey or walk anywhere without seeing something a bit weird that you would never see anywhere else. So I thought I would start jotting things down (as my memory is awful) and here are just some of the things I’ve seen the last few days (I think I actually managed to forget to write down most of it, oops!

1. It’s pretty normal here to see people piled into the back of pick up trucks (me and Brynja even had a go at it once as we just had to try it – it was freezing!!), sometimes literally piled on top of each other. But last weekend I actually saw a huge truck, like the one you would usually see on a building site, carrying people. Very strange – can you imagine that happening in the UK??

2. Another regular thing here is the stray dogs, there are hundreds of them. You won’t walk for 10 minutes in most places without seeing a couple… and sometimes they just sleep on the pavement and you freak out that they are dead! But they aren’t. They are so adapted to life here that they know how to avoid traffic and walk around like they know exactly where they are headed. I have only seen dogs on leads here twice. The other day though when I was on a rapidito bus, I saw a group of about 6 or 7 dogs all walking together in the same direction… like they had agreed where they were off to and the way to go!

3. Something sad that you see surprisingly often here is men with one, or no, legs. There seems to be a surprising amount of men in wheelchairs, or without one, begging on the streets. It is something you occasionally see in London maybe, but here I see about two men like this a week…

4. It is also very common to see young children selling things on the street, like water, fruits and sweets. They are just so young and should clearly be in school.

5. One of the nicer things I have seen, well funnier things, was when I was walking through the centro and quite an old man was walking towards me, combing his grey hair! He had one of those little combs you imagine old Italian men to use and was just combing it over and over obsessively! Made me laugh a little..

6. Today on my bus home I also saw a wall literally made of mud and tyres and also a, clearly homeless, man in the middle of a busy triangle junction just spinning around and around. It isn’t funny to see something like that, it is quite sad, but it is really just fascinating so I’m actually kind of looking forward to getting buses to work now for all the crazy things I will see!

7. Yesterday me and a friend at my project, Sarah, went to the local shop (they are called pulperias and are the ones with bars across them so they look like jail cells) and were met 2 minutes from our project with a Garifuna style dance off. It was right in the middle of the centro so the roads were closed off (apparently with no prior notice) and there was a big circle of Garifuna people (an ethnic group in Honduras that came here as slaves from Africa years ago) in amazing tribal dress and lots of instruments being played. They would take turns to go into the music and basically shake their bum to the music, but a little more impressive than I make it sound. But I honestly do not know how they did all that dancing in all those layers… it was so hot!!! Me and Laura are hoping to go to a Garifuna festival in July so I’m looking forward to seeing more of this dancing, it’s so much fun!

8. Another weird thing about living here, particularly where my new house is, is the ‘gated communities’. You imagine big walls, big impassable gates and strict security. No… from what I have seen the guards let most people by without any questions and often the barrier into the estate isn’t exactly intimidating anyway.

9. Something quite funny happened at the weekend also… Me, Laura, Brynja and a guy called Noel from Honduras (he was one of the guys who went to Tela) went to a Chinese restaurant. It was amazing – we sat in a little boat and the food was greasy but delicious. Anyway, we let Noel order the food as he could order in Spanish easiest and then he starts to have a full on conversation with the waiter and we pick up the word ‘lemons’. Turns out his dad sells lemons and Noel had decided to have a go at selling some… it worked! And a few days later when Noel was late to meet us, it turned out he was delivering his lemons. Just random.

So they are my random things for now… I will try and keep remembering them so I can keep giving you all an idea of the crazy randomness here.

I also forgot to mention before that my family have a cat, which for the people who know me well will know that this isn’t happy news for me! But actually, as far as cats go, it’s OK. It has a fluffy tail and it stays away from me. I think we’ll just about manage to get on. My host mum also said tonight that if I stay living with them until I leave next year then they will get a dog, haha! That is a good reason to stay right?! 🙂

When I got home from my project today, my host sister showed me around the colonia (neighborhood) so I could start to get my bearings a bit… or know where the nearest place to buy M&Ms! The views are amazing… it is unbelievable how far you can see. You can see the Christ statue which is a good 40 minute drive from my house. There is also a big ‘shanty town’ on a hill close to where we were so when I get my camera back from Laura I will go and take some pictures as it will finally be safe to do so!! We also went into a huge abandoned house nearby… basically a woman who worked for the ousted ex-President, Zelaya, built the house but when Zelaya was basically thrown out of the country she had to flee too. So ever since then the house has been deserted even though it is worth millions. It is gorgeous and the views are amazing… I will take pictures of this too!

I’m also really excited about things at my project at the moment… tomorrow I am making a new sign for the computer room which isn’t really a big deal but to me it means that there will be something I’ve made at the project at least for a little bit after I have gone! Also, next Wednesday, Hector who teaches English classes, has asked me to plan and do a lesson! I’m really tempted to do lots of colloquial language and throw in some proper British slang but as they have only just started learning I’m not sure this would be great for them… The director of the project has also asked me to give a presentation on human rights to the people who work in my project. I’m really excited to do it but as it will need to be in Spanish I’m quite nervous too! I will keep you updated on how it goes…

Hope I didn’t waffle on too much, I’m tired and the words just ended up on the page somehow… Buenos Noches!!